FYI

“Coffy” will be shown at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21. “Foxy Brown” will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, followed by a VIP reception with dinner. “Jackie Brown” will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday. Movie tickets are $6 for each showing, and tickets for the VIP reception are $50. The Redford Theatre is at 17360 Lahser Road, Detroit. Visit redfordtheatre.com for more information.

The Redford Theatre is more than a place to watch movies. It’s a place to meet movie stars.

In the past couple of years organizers at the historic movie house in Detroit have arranged visits from celebrities including Shirley Jones (“Oklahoma”), Karolyn Grimes (“It’s a Wonderful Life”), Peter Ostrum (“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”) and Butch Patrick (“The Munsters”).

Now Pam Grier is coming.

The queen of high-octane action thrillers of the 1970s will greet guests attending the Pam Grier Film Festival, Feb. 21-22. The festival features screenings of her three biggest films: “Coffy” (1973), “Foxy Brown” (1974) and Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” (1997), based on the late Elmore Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch.”

Of course, she’ll sign autographs.

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“I had to support this film festival,” Grier said by phone from her home in Colorado. It serves to promote her work as an actress and the rebuilding that’s been going on around Redford and Detroit, she noted.

“I love that the theater and other buildings in the area are being renovated,” Grier said. “I always said Detroit was stunning and historically very prominent.”

When “Foxy Brown” was first released, cast members did not have the luxury of attending a premiere party in only one city, as they often do today. They were asked to tour the country, hitting several cities to publicize the film. Detroit was among Grier’s favorite stops on a tour in 1971.

“The Fisher Theater hosted us,” Grier said. “I remember going downtown to a few of the restaurants. The food was just fabulous.”

While others in the country were down on Detroit, saying the government should let the auto industry die, Grier remembered the people were friendly, hardworking Americans.

“I’m one of those people who believe that every state has a city that contributes to the fabric of America. Detroit has such a rich history, it’s been very prominent. Do you let your foot die? No, you need it to stand up.”

Grier knows something about that.

As a young girl Grier wanted to take riding lessons. She also wanted to go to ballet school.

“But I was black,” she said.

Being a girl also squashed her hopes of becoming a veterinarian. Still, the women in her family were encouraged to be strong and independent: You change your own tire, girl. So she put her energy to use in other sports, such as running and golf, and saving enough money to attend film school and landing a role in a feature film.

While living in Los Angeles, she worked as a receptionist for American International Pictures, in hopes of paying her tuition to attend film school. She was asked by director Jack Hill to play a role in his women-in-prison film, “The Big Doll House” (1971). Although excited about the chance, she hesitated. “I had four jobs at the time. I didn’t want to give them up to become something I didn’t know how to be (yet),” she said. So, again, she put her energy into learning, studying the techniques of Constantin Stanislavski, and ended up nailing the role. Under contract at AIP, Grier went on to play similar roles in blaxpoitation films featuring sexy, street-smart women overcoming impossible odds. That made her not only a celebrity of the 1970s, but a role model.

The Redford Theatre film festival will feature three of Grier’s films (all rated-R). At 8 p.m. Friday audiences will see Grier as a nurse who tracks down the drug dealers responsible for her sister’s overdose in “Coffy.” Showing at 2 p.m. Saturday is “Foxy Brown,” in which Grier infiltrates a shady modeling agency to avenge her lover’s death. From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. there will be a special VIP reception. Tickets are $50 and include dinner at the Old Redford Banquet Center (across from the theater) and a special presentation by Grier.

Following the dinner, at 8 p.m. audiences will see the crime drama “Jackie Brown,” which also stars Robert Forster, Robert De Niro, Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton. Her performance in the film earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a motion picture comedy/musical.

Grier remembers author Leonard, who lived in Bloomfield Hills, with fondness and admiration.

“I loved his work,” said Grier. “He gravitated to women characters who could really express themselves.” Then, he would find a seed in each fold of that character and through the development of a story, help them to grow and develop, she said.

“In ‘Jackie Brown’ you could see — they were coming to kill her, so she prepared herself and turned the situation around to where she was not the victim, but he was.”

About the Author

Gina Joseph is a multimedia journalist and columnist for The Macomb Daily. Reach the author at gina.joseph@macombdaily.com Follow @ginaljoseph on Twitter or visit her beat blog macomblife.blogspot.com Reach the author at gina.joseph@macombdaily.com
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